


angel with a shotgun

by dancingassassin



Series: Gundam 00 Week 2017 [2]
Category: Gundam 00
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Friendship, Gaming, Overwatch - Freeform, Slurs, Tieria has anxiety, the slurs are because online gaming is rude
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-14 17:12:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10540914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancingassassin/pseuds/dancingassassin
Summary: written for gundam 00 week 2017.day 2 theme: duality/AUTieria is studying abroad while Regene is still studying in California. To keep in touch, they started playing Overwatch. This led to meeting some interesting people, as well as plenty of assholes.AKA: Tieria plays Overwatch with Neil and they both deal with jerks





	

Whenever Tieria and Regene played Overwatch together, people wound up thinking they were girls. He supposed he understood why people thought Regene was a girl, his voice was androgynous and he would pop into the voice chat to collaborate, taunt, and troll. However, Tieria refused to voice chat with people he did not know, which seemed to only _add_ to the thought that they were, in fact, girls. Their screennames (‘ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ’ and ‘ **REGRETTA** ’) also seemed to lead people to the conclusion that they were women. _Why does it matter if I’m a girl? I’m pretty sure that gender identity has absolutely no bearing on gaming ability._

Tieria didn’t really care most of the time. He just liked playing the game. He would pop into game when negatives thoughts became too overpowering or loud. He knew it wasn’t the best way to deal with intrusive thoughts and depression, but it was working for now. Or at least it was helping. _It’s helping for now, who knows how long that will last._

He and Regene had started playing Overwatch as a means to keep in touch and have something to do together. Tieria was currently living on the other side of the ocean due to studying abroad. He was doing a full semester in Wales while Regene continued studying in California. Eight hours of time difference. The time difference was making it difficult for the two of them to actually group up together, but poor sleep schedules and odd hours allowed them a couple hours a week.

Tieria had already finished his assignments for the night and even some for later in the week. His roommate, like usual, was out somewhere. He wasn’t entirely sure why he’d chosen this apartment over all the others, but he had. _Lying to myself, I know why I chose it. It’s close to the university and is dirt cheap._ Tieria knew he should have been a bit pickier with choosing his living space, but his budget was tight. And his budget had necessitated a roommate. His roommate was out with his friends most nights and was _loud_ when he came home at 3am.

But with his assignments done, food eaten, apartment cleaned…Tieria didn’t really have anything to do. He glanced down at his watch and sighed. 4pm. That meant it was 8am where Regene was. They weren’t going to be able to group up for gaming for a couple hours.

He slumped down on the sofa and stared up at the ceiling. Tieria had grown used to living with his brother on campus. There was something comforting about hearing Regene typing on his computer as he worked on his computer science homework. He had been excited about studying abroad and he was enjoying the classes and the new environment (to an extent).

But much of the time Tieria felt alone. He felt alien, like he stuck out. It simultaneously felt like all eyes were on him and that absolutely no one noticed him, that he wasn’t _worth_ being noticed. Logically, he knew that neither of those were true, but he couldn’t shake the thought away.

_Alone, unnoticeable, not worth anything. Alone alone alone._ The thoughts rattled through his mind and Tieria pressed the heel of his palm to his forehead and groaned. He stayed on the sofa for a few more minutes and chewed on the inside of his lip.

_Fuck it_. Tieria nearly vaulted off of the sofa and briskly walked to his computer. He powered it up and settled into the comfortable chair that he was certain cost more than his bedframe had. Booting didn’t take long at all and he was immediately pulling up Overwatch. There was no reason for him to sit around and let thoughts bother him for the next few hours. Tieria was allowed to distract himself.

Headset was tugged on with the microphone tucked away because he had absolutely no intention of using it. Tieria was surprised to see that there were friends online – most of his friend list resided in the United States. It was a bit early for most of them to be gaming, though he supposed that some of them might not have gone to bed yet.

Tieria loaded into training mode just to make sure everything was set right – there were times that he got a bit paranoid that someone had touched his rig while he was out. He knew that they didn’t, but he still needed to make sure that everything was calibrated properly.

A bloop caught his attention and his eyes drifted to the second monitor. Someone was messaging him from battle.net. Tieria quirked an eyebrow up and stared at the name. ‘ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ’ was someone that he and Regene had wound up teaming up with for several rounds in a row in quickplay, along with ‘ **HELLOTARGETPRACTICE.’** The four of them had been a brutally efficient team and had been amused to find out that they were two sets of twins. After that, the four had grouped up for competitive a few times – mainly because ‘ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ’ and ‘ **HELLOTARGETPRACTICE** ’ didn’t push for Tieria to hop into team chat.

It had been a bit of time since Tieria had heard from either of them – the last time school had been brought up as well as work. He had figured life was just too busy for them to make time for gaming. That had been before Tieria had moved to Wales.

 

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] Hey angel, long time no talk. Isn’t it a bit early for you to be gaming?

[ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ] hello lockon. it would be if i was still in the States, but i’m studying abroad right now

 

With everything calibrated properly, Tieria backed out of training mode and moved to hop into the queue for quickplay. He intended on playing competitive later, but he wanted a warm up first. He wanted to figure out which character he was favoring that day.

 

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] wait seriously? I’m in Ireland. Just got here last week.

 

Well, that explained why he was online at such an ‘odd’ hour for someone in the States.

 

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] No regretta today? You two usually play together, right?

[ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ] my brother is still in the states, actually.

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] well, want to team up with me? My bro is still in the states too and its way more fun to play with others

 

_He has a point…_ Tieria chewed on the inside of his lip as he tried to figure out how he wanted to respond to this. _But do I feel like teaming up with someone right now…_

 

[ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ] sure

 

A moment later, there was a request to join ‘ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ’ in a group, which Tieria accepted without hesitation. The voice chat was automatically joined, but as Tieria constantly had it muted, that’s how it came up for him. Tieria noted that Lockon was in the voice chat, but wasn’t physically talking to him.

That was odd.

Tieria was under the impression that Lockon was a chatty guy when he was gaming.

 

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] I hope you don’t mind quickplay? I kinda want to warm up before I hit competitive

[ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ] that’s what i was going to do, warm up, then competitive. i wanted to see which character i was doing well with first

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] uh you’re pretty damn good with every character, but I understand the feeling

 

The game announced that they were on Ilios for a match. Tieria smiled slightly – he liked the Ilios map. One, it was pretty. The white and blue were really nice together. And he tended to favor the king of the hill maps. Sure, the matches were longer because of having multiple rounds, but Tieria didn’t care.

 

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] damn this match is unbalanced. Look at that level 800 over there.

 

Tieria tapped the tab button and furrowed his brow. Yes, the match was _really_ unbalanced. Maybe it was the time of day that they were playing, or maybe it was win percentage coming into play. Tieria didn’t know. One day he would crack the algorithm behind quickplay, but today was not that day.

He locked in as Zarya, who was one of Tieria’s mains. Lockon was right – Tieria had a good amount of time on most characters, though there were some that he really disliked playing. But Zarya was the one he picked when he wanted to do really, really well.

 

[ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ] i’m sure that we’ll do fine

 

He watched the rest of the team lock in. Lockon had taken Soldier 76 rather than Widowmaker, probably because of the extra healing. They had a Junkrat, a Symmetra, a d.VA, and a Genji.

No healer.

Someone in the team text chat mentioned that a healer would be smart if the wanted to win, but no one was making a move to change characters. Tieria huffed under his breath as he went and switched to Mercy. _I was the first one locked in and I wind up being the one to switch…ugh_

 

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] I don’t think I’ve ever seen you play Mercy before. Here I was looking forward to hearing Zarya’s terrifying beam at maximum charge for a long time

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] and seeing people accuse you of cheating because of that

[ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ] well, no one was switching and i wanted to try being a murder mercy

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] isn’t the term ‘no mercy Mercy’

[ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ] i like my version better

 

The countdown hit zero and Tieria had Mercy zooming off after Lockon’s Soldier and damage boosting him.

There are matches where everything goes well and the win feels easy, there are matches where it is challenging and makes the win oh so satisfying, but then there are matches where the team winds up completely and utterly steamrolled.

Unfortunately, this match fell into the final category.

Tieria had tried his hardest to keep everyone alive and healed, but the team was scattered. And the other team was _very_ well-coordinated despite them all being solo players. It said something when _Mercy_ was the one with silver eliminations and gold objective kills.

 

[ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ] ugh that was ugly

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] bet you get play of the game for that 4 man res

[ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ] a mercy play of the game? unlikely.

 

But his name and highlight intro splashed across the screen and Tieria couldn’t help but smile. It was the four man resurrection followed by a double kill – Tieria was damn proud of it. Especially because he didn’t particularly _like_ playing Mercy.

His happiness was short lived, though.

The team text chat was exploding with messages. And none of them were pleased with the play of the game, or the fact that Tieria and Lockon were the only ones from their team that got cards at the end.

 

[ **HEALMEB1TCH** ] seriously? a mercy potg? wtf

[ **POTGSTEALER** ] our mercy is the reason we lost

[ **HEALMEB1TCH** ] ^this

[ **KIRITO** ] this is why chicks shouldn’t play games

[ **HEALMEB1TCH** ] stupid bitch

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] hey, chill out.

[ **KIRITO** ] no. reporting her.

 

On top of that, he’d done nearly 17k in healing and only got a commendation because the _other_ team voted for him. They’d said so in the chat.

Tieria rolled his eyes and blocked all three of the players that were trash talking. No reason to deal with players like that. He sighed and rubbed at his face. _Figures that I log in to play and **this** happens…_

He stared off at the wall and scowled. He didn’t realize that Lockon had pulled them out of the queue until he realized that his computer was making blooping noises. A lot of them.

 

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] you there, angel?

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] you’re kinda worrying me…

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] if you need a minute, just let me know

[ **L0CK0NSTRAT0S** ] …angel?

 

Tieria had just started typing a message when he heard something crackle in his headset.

Audio.

Lockon had unmuted the voice chat.

“You there, angel?” Lockon’s voice was almost as Tieria remembered – smooth and almost calming – but Tieria could hear concern tinging it. There seemed to be the slightest of accents at the edges of his voice, but Tieria could just be hearing things.

 

[ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ] sorry, i’m here. we can hop back in queue.

 

The initial response to Tieria’s message was a sharp, snorting laugh. “Hey now…it’s not like you to go quiet like that. What’s up?” Yes, that was definitely concern in Lockon’s voice. “Those guys were jerks, but it happens, right?”

There was a moment when Tieria was tempted to tell Lockon how weird things were by himself, but he shook his head. _That’s probably more than he wants to know anyway…_

 

[ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ] just life being annoying.

 

There was another short laugh, followed by a sigh. “You know you’re allowed to elaborate, right? I’ve got time. I’m done with homework and classes.”

_Does he really want to know? It’s not like we really know each other that well…_ Tieria’s fingers hovered over the keyboard and his eyes bored into them as he tried to will himself to type.

 

[ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ] them being jackasses was just the cherry on top of a shit sundae. i’m alone in a foreign country, i don’t have friends here, i don’t feel like i belong…

 

Silence, save for the soft sounds of breathing.

_This was a mistake…_

“Ya know…I know the feeling, at least kind of?” Lockon sighed and Tieria thought he could hear him shifting. “It’s lonely here. I got used to having Lyle around – ah…that’s my brother’s name.” There was the sound of him sipping at something. “And I’ve been in the States so long that despite having been born here I feel out of place. It sucks to be alone.”

Tieria mulled over the words and nodded slightly as they washed over him. Even though he wasn’t particularly close with Lockon, hearing his voice was calming him, comforting him even. It was nice to have someone talking at _him_. Sure, he had classes and people talked to him then, but that was different. That was more like social obligation. This was someone voluntarily speaking with him…

 

[ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ] being alone gives me too much time to think. too quiet.

 

He got a thoughtful hum in response. “Yeah, I can understand that.” Lockon exhaled and shifted around again. Something clattered in the background and Tieria heard muffled cursing. “…ah…sorry. Thanks for telling me what’s up, angel. I worry about my friends.”

Tieria’s fingers hovered over the M key on the keyboard. That would unmute the voice chat. That would start broadcasting his voice. He’d never physically spoken with Lockon or his twin, only typed to them. But…

He found himself wanting to chat now.

Before he could back out, he tapped the M key and snapped the microphone into place.

“Tieria. My name is Tieria.” He spoke softly. “Thanks for listening to me.”

“Holy shit.” Lockon coughed and let out what sounded like a nervous little laugh. “Nice to finally hear you, Tieria. You can call me Neil if you want.” A pause and a more confident laugh. “I know that girls are just as good at gaming as guys, but if you went in the chat, _no one_ would mistake you for a girl.”

“Hm…I suppose not. But I don’t like talking to randos.” Tieria tapped his fingers along the edge of his desk. There was a tiny smile starting to quirk his lips up. “And I get anxious.”

_Oh. I didn’t really mean to mention that…_

“Ah…yeah. Those guys can get weird anyway.” Neil didn’t seem to care about the mention of anxiety or anything like that. “I’ve got a question though.”

Tieria’s brows furrowed together and he felt the aforementioned anxiety spike. He chewed the inside of his lip as he calmed himself enough to speak. “Go ahead.” _A question does not mean anything bad…questions aren’t reason to freak out. ugh._

“…why angelwithashotgun?” Neil sounded genuinely curious. “I mean, it’s a cool name! But you don’t play Reaper and it seems a bit random…and you seem more logical?”

Tieria felt his cheeks heat up, though he wasn’t exactly sure why. “Well…I really like the song ‘Angel with a Shotgun’…so that’s part of it.” He pulled up the video and linked it to Neil a moment later.

“Oh thanks, I’ll listen to that later.” Neil hummed. “And what’s the other part?”

‘ **ANGELWITHASHOTGUN** ’ was a name that Tieria really liked for multiple reasons. It had duality to it. Angels were known to be merciful, peaceful, all sorts of light, bright things. They were associated with good. Shotguns though? Pure power. Destruction. Darkness. All sorts of things like that.

“Well…I’m unassuming but I’m going to destroy you in game. Doesn’t that seem like an angel with a shotgun?” Tieria sounded a bit sheepish when he said it. It sounded _really_ silly when he said it out loud. “…and it sounds badass.”

Neil laughed, but not in a mocking way. It seemed he laughed easily, which Tieria had an inkling based on their previous games together. “Ya know…that sounds _really_ like you. It’s perfect.”

 


End file.
